The death toll from a daycare center blaze in Mexico's northern Sonora state has risen to 42, an official said late Sunday.

Thirty-three adults and children were still hospitalized, said Daniel Karam, director of Mexico's Social Security Administration.

There were some 142 children and six staff members in the privately-run center when the fire occurred on Friday.

The death toll has gone up to 41 earlier in the day. Most of the victims reportedly died from smoke inhalation and the injured adults included staff members at the center and people who tried to help.

The daycare center was housed in an old warehouse. On Friday, afire at a nearby warehouse leased by the state government spread to the center and caused the tragedy, and firefighters spent two hours putting the blaze under control.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who visited hospitalized children on Saturday night, ordered the nation's attorney general to investigate what he called "the tragedy that has the nation grieving."

Source: Xinhua